Well I did not declare NO a genius, just stated that I give him credit for his draft choices because to me ultimately making those choices is his job. Credit isn't ALWAYS good, there is negative credit, positive credit, sometimes credit it just eh you did your job and that's something but not really anything special. By saying I'd give NO credit for drafting Little, that's not saying I think he went far and beyond and deserves another raise and contract extension because of it. I'm just saying it was his call to make, and HE did it.
Yes but given his question marks and Portland's needs, it was obvious for 90%+ of the fanbase. If Little bombs out of the league in 2 years, I won't criticize it either.
Yes, the only positive of it was we turned it into a better player with a poor contract. It was still a bad move in the first place. No team wanted those contracts though, and ET was never going to live up to it. So Neil would've been incredibly dumb to sign a guy like Turner to a 4 year, $70M deal with the thought that it would help him make trades.
I wouldn't call it a "gift." Kanter was a gift from a poorly run franchise. If nothing else, Olshey gets credit for hiring competent scouts and listening to them on draft night.
Was kanter a gift? Any team with an open roster spot could have theoretically signed him. Neil‘s relationship with Bartlestein was a factor. Kanter said as much.
Don't need to as it wasn't stated in those term. In that regards probably about 20-30 players have similar "potential" or " best case". Those are merely words that doesn't mean much in reality.
At the same time though, you'd still be pissed if Olshey drafted someone other than Little though. It's a bit disingenuous to say he doesn't deserve credit for Little but would be getting obliterated on this board if he took say Windler in that spot. At the same time we're not going to give him a pass if Little flames out of the league just because 95% of us would've taken him. Olshey has acquired every player on this roster. He deserves credit or blame for all of it in my opinion not just selective ones.
Of course not, Olshey manipulated all those other teams intentionally to make sure that Little slipped to the Blazers. It was all part of his master plan. If you were walking down the street and saw a $20 bill on the ground, and you picked it up, would you consider yourself a rainmaker? Little was appropriately ranked about 12-14. He slipped about 10 slots. He was the obvious choice at their pick. I give credit to Olshey for Ant--if he indeed does impact the team, but sorry, that would be like giving the Pels credit for drafting Zion. It wasn't skill, it was luck. I don't expect you to agree with me, as I rarely have much in common with triathletes, but I think we need more time to truly see if Olshey is the greatest manager of all time.
Agree. I would actually expand the credit and blame towards the group: Paul Allen (and now Jody Allen), Neil Olshey, Terry Stotts, scouting team, and everyone else involved with player personnel. It's a team effort.
Neil makes a point about not having any cap room come July 1....of course without any mention of 'why' and sign all those players to that amount of money.
